Sparring

I had been reading when I heard a knock on my door. "Come in" I called out quietly. The door opened to reveal Tori. I wondered what she could want. "T-Tori, Is there s-something you need?"  

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sparring me?" I was rather surprised to hear this. I pondered it for a moment as I thought back to the last time I had fought someone. It...it still haunts me to this day. But that was a long time ago....  

I thought that practicing would probably do me good. So I shut my book and sighed. "S-sure, why not?" She seem slightly surprised. She probably hadn't expected it to be that easy. I followed her as we walked out to the back yard.  She stopped and I walked a few yards away turning and facing her as she did a few stretches. I did not feel the need to stretch so I simply waited for her to finish. When she had she stood straight up and looked at me, I looked back warily.   

"Okay Skye real simple, just hand to hand. If you want to stop just tell me okay?" At my nod she continued. "and don't be afraid to hit me, I can take it. Ready?" Another nod from me and she charged forward attempting to punch me in the chest. I was surprised at her speed, she was much faster then she looked. I twisted quickly, the punch missing me by inches. She turned trying to sweep my feet out from underneath me and I jumped back. She did not give me time to recover however and charged again. She began to throw punch after punch. I did not attempt to attack and simply continued to dodge. She seemed to grow irritated, her punches picking up speed. She feinted a punch at my face before striking out with her other hand attempting to strike my ribs. The strike brushed me as I jumped backwards, breathing heavily.  

I looked up at her as she turned. It was easy to tell she was angry. "Hit me damn it!" she yelled, rushing at me again somehow even faster than before. Her attacks were more fierce and were missing me by mere millimeters. I continued to dodge however, still not attempting to strike back. I just...I couldn't. I can't hit a girl! I never have and I never planned to. It just seemed wrong. I was caught by surprise when she suddenly tackled me, I was not able to move out of the way.   

She easily pinned me and I could see anger in her normally dull blue eyes. "If I were trying to kill you, you'd be dead," she growled. Despite the situation I felt my face heat up and I became slightly dizzy. It was then that I passed out.  My eyes opened slowly and I found myself staring at a mask, it was white with a green caduceus split down the middle, the wings covered the eye-holes. I snapped awake at that rolling to the side as a boot stomped down where I once was. I scrambled to my feet and distanced myself from them and took time to examine him/her. They wore a plain looking black hoodie with the hood over their head covering their hair. The also wore a pair of dark blue jeans.  

"And who are you?" I questioned trying to catch my breath. The person said nothing in return, standing eerily still. "What do you want?!" I was met with silence. The masked person simply stared at me. "What are you mute?" More silence.  

The masked person chose this time to rush forward. I was not ready for this and I took a powerful blow to my stomach. I stumbled backwards gasping for air. The person gave me no time to react though and wasted no time, rushing at me once again. Once again I was dodging lightning fast strikes. After a few minutes of this I had finally had enough. The next punch they threw I parried, throwing them off guard. I drew my fist back and struck them in the chest as hard as I could.   

They stumbled backwards and I readied myself for another assault. What I did not expect was pained laughter and a familiar voice. "Damn Skye, that's quite a punch you have there." The person removed their mask and lowered their hood. Revealing none other than Tori. I was surprised, though now that I think about it I shouldn't have been. I should have noticed that Tori had seemingly just disappeared after I had awoke.  "T-Tori? Why d-did you....?" and the stuttering was back, wonderful.  

"I'm sorry I tricked you Skye. I was trying to get you to defend yourself. You can't be afraid to fight girls Skye. When you eventually come up against a girl proxy, which you will, you can't hesitate. Because they won't." She explained.  

I sighed. "No...I get it. It's alright." I stared at the ground not sure what else to say. "D-did I...did I h-hurt you?"  

"Nah, you just surprised me. And you knocked the wind out of me," her voice was strained slightly. She had to be lying with her voice like that. I had probably hit her harder than she'd want to admit.  

I heard her unzip her hoodie and looked up to see that she had ace bandage wrapped around her... torso over top a bright blue tank-top. She had tossed the hoodie onto the ground. "Trust me, this has nothing on corsets," she smirked and her fingers traced around the bandages. "Shit where did I tuck this damn thing in?"

As she grumbled and cursed I examined her arms and shoulders. I mean, I read her post about the scars and everything, but seeing them was different. There wasn't any kind of pattern to them that I could see, just that some were pinker than others. Some of them looked shiny in the muted light, like burn scars.   

"You know you'd be hard-pressed to find a square inch of my skin that doesn't have at least one scar on it," she spoke up.  

I blushed again and looked down at the ground. "S-sorry, I didn't m-mean to s-stare..." She laughed and I looked back up to see her wrapping up the ace bandage easily, in a way that left it completely even on both of the sides.  

"Kid, I'd be concerned if you didn't stare. I didn't exactly go into detail in my post. And trust me, it gets worse the lower down you get." I once again tucked away the irritation of being called kid as she motioned to her legs. "There's a reason I always wear jeans in public."  

"O-oh..." I mumbled. She shrugged and grabbed her hoodie off of the ground. "You d-don't have to c-cover them u-up if you don't w-want to you k-know..." I felt like my face was on fire as I said this. She'd actually been wearing long sleeves and jeans this entire time.   

I was met with silence and looked up at Tori who was staring at me with an unreadable expression. I looked down slightly my face still burning. "I'll consider it when you can say that without stuttering." I looked up my eyes widening slightly to see that she was smirking as she zipped up her hoodie. I could do nothing but stare as she walked back into the house. She looked back at me the smirk still on her face. "You coming?" she asked.

I snapped out of my daze and I sighed, a small smile on my face. "Y-yeah....." I responded quietly and began to walk towards the house.